While the boys were talking Ned came out of the cabin with his glass. He
gazed landward for a long time and then handed the glass to Jack.

"There's something stirring up the little chaps," he said.

"They're always wigglin' like a basket of snakes," Jimmie observed.

"Sounds like they were calling the police," Frank put in.

"I'll tell you about it when I return," Jack said. "If there's anything
grand, gloomy or peculiar over there I'll be sure to find it. Want to go
along with me, little boy?" he added, turning to Jimmie, who at once
resented this manner of address by trying to push Jack overboard.

"Of course I'm goin'," Jimmie declared, giving over his benevolent
intentions with regard to Jack. "I reckon you'll get lost if you go six
yards away from the _Manhattan_ alone."

"Run along, both of you!" Ned said. "And don't get into trouble. We've
got no time to waste looking up runaway boys."

"If the native tribes are holding a convention there," Frank said, as
the boys slipped into the boat which they were to row ashore, "just give
them my compliments and ask them to dinner."

For some moments after the boys reached the white beach and disappeared
in the jungle Ned stood scanning the island with his glass.

"I half believe the chiefs are there," he said, turning to Frank.

"Then why did you let the boys go?" asked the latter.

"I wish now that I hadn't," Ned replied.

"Say," Pat called out, "I can go and bring 'em back. They can't be very
far away. Shall I?"

"Yes," was the hesitating reply, "and bring back all the news you can
about what is going on on the island. There's something unusual taking
place there, judging from the row the monkeys are making."

"How you going to get ashore?" asked Frank. "The boat is over there on
the beach."

"I'll show you," Pat replied.

The next moment he was in the water, striking out with lusty strokes for
the shore, only a few rods away.

"There's a crocodile coming!" Frank called out to him.

The call was designed to make Pat show a burst of speed, but it did
indeed serve as a warning to the swimmer, for a huge crocodile separated
himself from a point a few paces away and started to make a breakfast of
the boy.

Pat saw the danger and hesitated an instant, uncertain whether to turn
back to the _Manhattan_ or to strike out for the shore. This second of
hesitation would have cost him his life if Ned had not acted promptly.

When he saw that the crocodile wa